Both these sides have
had somewhat disappointing ends to the
football season, with Portsmouth having
one eye on the FA Cup Final and
Middlesbrough having one eye on...umm
err, anyways, I'm sure both managers
will be frustrated at their teams poor
ends to the season.
Middlesbrough are
playing some decent football, with £12m
man Alfonso Alves finally starting to
find his scoring boots, but they haven't
really been able to convert their
performances in to points, with only one
win in their last eight Premiership
games, and they have lost their last two
Premiership encounters, 3-2 to
Sunderland last week and a confidence
sapping 1-0 home loss to lowly Bolton.
They now face a Portsmouth side with one
eye firmly on UEFA Cup qualification and
another on the FA Cup final. Does that
suggest they are a little cock eyed
coming to the Riverside?
.
 Portsmouth
have also lost two games on the bounce, with
a 1-0 home defeat to Blackburn last and a
disappointing 3-1 away defeat at Manchester
City the week before. What will be a worry
for boss Harry Redknapp is that their once
solid looking defence has looked a little
shaky recently, with some terrible errors
from some of their better players, in David
James and Sol Campbell.
Betfair price the Boro home win as 11/10,
the draw is 5/2 while the Pompey away win is
3/1.
This is quite a difficult game to call as
it seems both teams are now looking to next
season, and we are not sure what sort of
team or performance Portsmouth will bring to
the Riverside. Due to this I'm going to
delve
elsewhere into other markets for a spot of
value.
One man who looks to be finding his feet
is Alfonso Alves, who has scored three goals
in his last four games. Although not exactly setting
the world on fire, the Brazilian has looked
like Boro's best attacking threat, and with
this being the last home game of the season,
I'm sure he will want to give the fans a
taster of things to come next season. As
mentioned, Pompey do look a little brittle
at the back at the moment, and I think Boro
have a good chance of finding the net today.
Betfair offer a
free £25 bet on this game
and at 2.4 (7/2) to score anytime Alves is
the call.
I'm not sure Boro can actually win this
game, but the ex Heerenveen striker can
certainly make an impression today. © Free-Bets.uk 2008
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